Utah Skiing Earns Top Academic Marks

1/28/2016 12:00 AM | Skiing

Jan. 28, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY - The Utah ski team was among the top academic teams in the Utah athletic department for the fall 2015 semester. The women's team achieved a 3.708 team grade point average, ranking second among all teams and just .011 points behind gymnastics. The men's ski team earned a combined 3.516 grade point average.

"We had an extremely positive fall period with conditioning as well as early training camps and race starts, and it does not surprise me that our academic achievements are right on par," Utah Director of Skiing Kevin Sweeney said. "I am always impressed with the academic achievements of the entire team and this period does not disappoint. This is really motivating for everyone that we are in fact student-athletes. I also think this success in the classroom has a lot to do with the excellent academic support system we have in place. Huge congratulations to this team for hitting the books so hard this fall!"

Six skiers had perfect 4.0 grade point averages during the fall: Veronika Mayerhofer, Sloan Storey, Julie Mohagen, Joergen Brath, Dominic Demschar and Martin Grasic. The Utes had 14 skiers make the Dean's List (3.5 GPA and above): Mayerhofer, Storey, Mohagen, Brath, Demschar, Grasic, Anna-Lena Heynen, Natalia Müller, Chloe Fausa, Teagen Palmer, Lauren Samuels, Noé Bellet, Nick Hendrickson and Endre Bjertness. In addition to the above skiers, six others were chosen for the Athletics Academic Honor Roll (3.0 GPA and above): Roni Remme, Lauren Samuels, Oscar Ivars, Tucker McCrerey, Niklas Persson, Ty Sprock and Sasha Zaitsoff.

The ski team has won two of the first three meets of the season, finishing first at the Utah Invite and Colorado Invite. The Utes return to action on Saturday, Feb. 20, with the New Mexico Invite.